


Christmassy Memories

by Shorina



Category: Sarah & Duck
Genre: Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-20
Updated: 2014-11-20
Packaged: 2018-02-26 09:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2646662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shorina/pseuds/Shorina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas Day for Sarah and Duck! What has Santa brought for them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmassy Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tree/gifts).



> Dear tree, the moment I read your prompt for Sarah & Duck in your letter, I knew I'd have to write this story. As the Yuletide Gods did not make it my assignment, you're getting it as a treat. Enjoy! 
> 
> And to my beta: Thank you for your help! You made this story both more British and more correct. Any remaining typos and mistakes are my fault.

It's Christmas Day and Sarah and Duck are up early to see what presents Santa Claus brought for them.

 

“Good morning, Sarah. And Merry Christmas.”

“Uh-huh. Merry Christmas!”

“Quack!”

“And Merry Christmas to you, too, Duck.”

“Come on, Duck, let's open our presents.” _Sarah pushes a present wrapped in paper with a duck-pattern and a big red bow towards Duck._ “This is from me.”

“Quack!”

“Now that's a pretty present, Duck.” _Duck pulls at the end of the ribbon with his beak but then looks a little lost as to how to continue._ “Maybe you should help him unwrap it, Sarah?”

“Yes. I'll start and you finish, Duck.” _She removes the sticky tape so the wrapping paper is loose._

“Quack!” _Duck takes it from there, pulling at the paper._

“Careful, Duck, you don't want to break whatever it is.”

“Quack!” _Duck finally pulls the paper off the present, which is a framed drawing of him, obviously made by Sarah herself._

“Do you like it, Duck?” _She looks at Duck, dancing from foot to foot expectantly._

_Duck flutters his wings excitedly._ “Quack!” _Then he flies to the tree and lifts a gift-bag up with his beak, carrying it to Sarah._

“Oh! Is that for me?” _Sarah peeks into the bag, reaches in and takes out a lemon._ “Thank you, Duck! Now I can make more lemon-water!”

“That was very thoughtful of you, Duck. Now, what about the other present under the tree?” _The Narrator clears his throat._ “It's from me.”

_Sarah skips to the tree and picks up a present wrapped in shiny red paper with a big green ribbon tied around it._

“Shiny! And heavy!”

“It's for the both of you.”

“You open the ribbon, Duck, I'll do the paper.”

_Duck waddles up to the present, studies it from all sides before pulling the ribbon off._ “Quack!”

_Sarah unwraps it and finds a book on wild animals._ “Ooh, look, Duck!” _She opens it to a random page._

_Duck looks at the book the wrong way round. The big picture on the left page shows a flamingo standing on one leg._

“Quack!” _Duck tries to stand on his head and stretch one leg up, causing Sarah to giggle. Duck tumbles over and with some fluttering of his wings gets back to his feet._

“Funny Duck!” _She flips through the book some more, making ooh and aah noises at the animal pictures before looking up._ “Thank you!”

“You're very welcome. But haven't you forgotten something?”

_Sarah puts a finger to her mouth, thinking. Duck appears to be thinking, too._

“Stockings!”

“Indeed.”

_Sarah scrambles up and reaches into her stocking hanging at the mantelpiece. She takes out an envelope that she opens and pulls out its content._ “It's a ticket.” _She studies it._ “Oh! To the zoo!”

_Meanwhile Duck has fluttered up to his own stocking, finding a similar envelope there. Down on the floor he nudges the envelope, then shakes it with his beak until a similar ticket floats down._ “Quack!”

* ~ * ~ *

After lunch, Sarah and Duck are getting ready to leave the house.

 

“And where are you two off to?”

“The zoo.”

“Ah, I see. Better not forget your scarf, Sarah, it's cold outside.”

“Mhm.” _She wraps her scarf around her neck._

“Do you have your tickets?”

“Yes! Look!” _She points to her pocket from which the tickets are protruding._ “Oh, nearly forgot!” _She dashes off._

_Duck looks startled as she races past him._ “Quack!”

_A moment later Sarah returns with her camera._

“Ah, yes, that's a good idea. Any animals you absolutely want to see at the zoo, Sarah?”

“Uh-uh. Sea turtles, giraffes and wombats.”

“Quack!”

“Heh. Yes, Duck wants to see the penguins.”

“Now that's quite a mix.”

“Yes.”

“You had better be on your way then.”

“Come on, Duck.”

_They leave the house and are greeted by the Shallots._ “Hello!” “Hello!” “Hello!” “Merry Christmas!”

“Thank you, and Merry Christmas!”

“Quack!” _Duck wiggles his rump._

 * ~ * ~ *

  _At the zoo, Sarah shows their tickets at the booth and they step through the entrance. Sarah looks around wide-eyed. A Christmas tree with many lights stands close to the entrance, paths lead off in three directions._

“Now, where do you two want to start?”

_Duck waddles towards a map of the zoo hanging in a showcase._ “Quack!”

“Clever Duck.” _Sarah joins him and studies the map._ “That way.” _She points down the left-hand path._

_As they stroll along, Sarah takes photos of some animals along the way: lions, a rhinoceros, a zebra._

“Quack!” _Duck has waddled ahead and is craning his neck upwards._

_Sarah skips towards him, looking up as well._ “Oh! Big giraffe!”

“It's very tall indeed!”

_Sarah attempts to take a photo of the giraffe, but finds it doesn't fit in one frame._ “Hm. Too tall.” _Her face brightens._ “Oh, I know!” _She takes several photos of legs, body, neck and head._ “Puzzle giraffe!”

_A chuckle from the Narrator._ “That's a clever idea, Sarah.”

“Yup! Come on, Duck, more animals to see.”

“Quack!” _Duck sounds excited and flutters after Sarah._

“And which animals do you want to look at next?”

“Penguins. For Duck!”

“Quack!” _Duck lands in front of Sarah and attempts to waddle like a penguin._

“Yes, he does love penguins, doesn't he? And look who's at the zoo today, too! It's Scarf Lady!”

“Ooh, hello you two!”

“Hello, Scarf Lady.”

“Happy Easter!”

“Christmas, it's Christmas!” _That's Bag, correcting her as usual._

“Is it? Silly me. Happy Christmas, Sarah.”

“Merry Christmas, Scarf Lady. And to you, too, Bag.”

“Quack!”

“From Duck as well.”

“Thank you, that's ever so kind of you. And as we meet, here's a little something from the Easter Bunny for you two.” _She reaches into Bag._

_Bag grumbles._ “It's from Santa Claus, not the Easter Bunny!”

“Oh yes, him.” _She pulls out a knitted hat with two pompoms dangling from the top and a long, striped scarf, handing both to Sarah._ “One for each of you.”

“Thank you!” _Sarah takes off her usual hat and puts the new one on, parading in front of Duck who flaps his wings and quacks several times in approval._

“This is for you, Duck.” _Sarah wraps the scarf around Duck's neck a few times. He seems very proud but trips over one end as he tries to parade around like Sarah has done._

“Oh my, that's the wrong one! I swear I had a shorter one for him...” _Scarf Lady reaches into Bag again, this time producing a shorter scarf with the image of a duck knitted into one of the ends._ “That's the one.” _She removes the too-long scarf from Duck's neck and slings the right one around him instead._ “Yes, that's better.”

“Yes! Fancy Duck!”

“Quack!” _Duck carefully takes a step, then, finding he's not tripping over any more, prances about._

“Well, good to have met you two, but we must be on our way now.”

“Good bye, Scarf Lady! Bye, Bag!”

“Now that was good of her. You both look very smart and cosy. Do you want to go see the penguins now?”

“Quack! Quack, quack!”

“I take it that means yes?”

“Uh-huh.” _Sarah snaps a photo of Duck with his new scarf before they walk on._

_Duck flies ahead, landing on the fence around the penguins' compound. He watches them dive into the water. Sarah catches up with him and leans over the fence next to him._

“Ooh. Many penguins!” _She lifts her camera for a photo, looking for a good motif. Duck flies into the compound and mingles with some of the penguins, again trying to waddle like them._

_Giggling, Sarah takes a photo of the scene._ “Penguin-Duck!”

“He seems to be having fun.”

“Yes. Come, Duck, time to look at sea turtles.”

_Duck waddles around in a circle one last time, then flies out of the compound and follows Sarah into a glass tunnel._

“Look, Duck, you can see the diving penguins from down here.”

_Near the entrance, Duck presses as close to a round window as possible, observing the penguins, while Sarah walks on into the main tunnel, looking up at the water above the glass ceiling where different fish are moving about._ “Whoa! Big fish!”

“You know, I think that was a ray.”

“Quack!” _Duck catches up with Sarah and runs from one side of the glass tunnel to the other, trying to look at everything at once, gabbling excitedly._

_Sarah watches him, then slowly walks on, looking left and right, her eyes wide._ “There! Turtles!”

_One of them seems to stare back at her._ “Hello, turtle!” _Sarah waves at the animal on the other side of the glass. The sea turtle blinks at her in slow-motion, then Sarah lifts her camera and takes a photo._

“Another photo! You'll have a lot of pictures to remind you of today, Sarah.”

“Yup. Christmassy memories.”

“That they are indeed. Say, wasn't there another animal you wanted to see? Only it's getting dark already. Maybe you'd better hurry?”

“No. Wombats are nocturnal.”

“Are they now! And how do you know this?”

“It said so in the book. So dark is good.”

“I suppose you're right there.”

“Come on, Duck. Let's find wombats!”

“Quack!”

_They walk out of the tunnel towards the Australian animals. A kangaroo jumps past prompting Duck to try to jump, too._

_Sarah watches him, giggling, then studies a sign._ “Wombats must be here.” _She leans on the fence surrounding the compound and looks around closely._ “Kangaroo, emu, erm, koala...”

_Duck tries to look between the bars of the fence._ “Quack, quack, quack.”

“There! A wombat!” _Sarah points at a snout poking out of the entrance to a burrow._

“Well spotted, Sarah.”

_The wombat comes out of the burrow, sniffs around, moves to a patch of grass and starts nibbling at it._ “Look, Duck, it's a mummy wombat!” _Sarah points to a smaller snout looking out of the burrow, sniffing the air before following the bigger wombat._

“You should be in your mummy's pouch, little wombat.”

“I think it might be too old for that already, Sarah.”

“Hmm. Yes, maybe. Must take a photo, though!” _She lifts her camera._

“I hope it's not already too dark to take pictures. You know, if you used a flash, you'd scare the animals.”

“Nope, I can still see them. Should work!”

“Good luck then.”

_She takes a photo._ “Got it!”

_Duck leans heavily on the fence, his eyes closing._

“Oh dear, he looks rather exhausted.”

_Sarah looks at her friend._ “Yes. Come on, Duck, time to go home.”

“Quack.”

“Have you seen all the animals on your list then?”

“Erm... yes!”

“Good! Then you'd really better be on your way. I think it's time for a nice mug of hot chocolate, don't you think?”

“Yes! Good idea. Bye, wombats!”

“Yes, good bye wombats, kangaroos, emus, koalas, turtles, rays, penguins... oh my, we saw a lot of animals today, didn't we?”

“Yup. And took photos.”

“Your Christmassy memories.”

“Yes!”

_She reaches for one end of Duck's scarf to make sure he doesn't fall behind as she heads for the exit. They set off home._

* ~ * ~ *

In the evening, Sarah sits in her computer room, looking at her digital photos on the screen.

 

_She yawns._

“Was it a nice Christmas Day, then, Sarah?”

“Uh-huh! Nice but long.”

“Maybe you should go to bed then? Look, Duck has already fallen asleep.” _He is on a chair next to her but his beak rests on his body, his eyes are closed._

“Sleepy Duck.” _She yawns again._

“Sounds like you are sleepy, too.”

“Yup, bed time.” _She turns off the computer and cradles Duck in her arms to take him upstairs._ “Good night.”

“And sweet dreams, Sarah.”


End file.
